Thursday, October 30, 2008

Bloggers and Pundits: Stop Spreading Fear

A campaign must be about issues, not fear. It must be about what some guy or gal is going to do over the next four years.

Instead of comparing the facts about policies and issues, left bloggers spend pages and pages on every gaffe, mistake, bad association, lie, and so on that McCain or Palin does or did.

Instead of comparing the facts about policies and issues, right bloggers spend pages and pages on every gaffe, mistake, bad association, lie, and so on that Obama or Biden does or did.

What the hell is wrong with you people? Of course fear works. People are ignorant and fears prey on them. So do guns, blackmail and bribery. But civilized people are supposed to be above disgusting tactics such as these. If you're smart enough to read and write an opinion, you're smart enough not to resort to one-sided political coverage. You complain about the low level of political discourse, and you're the one continuing it.

In the words of Bob Newhart, Stop It. Just stop it.

Lefties, I can't stand Bush's foreign or domestic policies either, but most people in America aren't yet dead, sick or poor. Four more years of similar policies aren't going to "destroy the country". You may not like McCain's policies. But is he really going to run the country into the ground out of stubbornness? You think he hates America?

McCain is a gentleman and a decent man as far as I can tell. He has political experience - not that experience means much if I don't like the policies that he bases on this experience. When he speaks, he generally exceeds my expectations. I really don't care if he gave political favors to friends of his ten years ago.

Righties, you may not like Obama's policies, but for goodness sake. He's not in league with terrorists, he's not going to drive the country into the ground, and he's not going to let terrorism run wild. He loves America and he supports Israel, just like nearly every other member of the government does.

He has different policies which may not work, but they don't include watching the world go to pieces and doing nothing about it. If things get to crisis levels, even he can change course. I really don't care if he was friends with a Palestinian sympathizer five years ago.

Argue about the issues and elect the one with better policies. Stop harping on their bad friends and colleagues, slipups, mistakes, gaffes, and labels. Sure, most votes are going to be cast because one's black and the other's white, one's a socialist, one's a terrorist, one's an old guy, one's out of touch, one's this, or one's that. That's because most of the people writing or talking about the election are not doing their job.